Mets New Field Coordinator

Joel Sherman in the Post had it first, but I can confirm that Dickie Scott will be the Mets new Minor League Field Coordinator. The Mets hope to make an official announcement Tuesday. Terry Collins, who was recently named the Mets’ manager, held the Field Coordinator job in 2010.

Scott was the Blue Jays Director of Player Development under J.P. Ricciardi from 2001 through 2009, but was let go when Alex Anthopoulos took over. Scott worked for the Houston Astros in 2010. Before joining the Jays, Scott was the Special Assistant to the General Manager/Advance Scout for the Oakland A’s.

Here’s an excerpt from a six-year old interview Scott did in 2004 for an old site called the Batters Box. Note that he’s talking about on-base percentage.

BB: What’s the biggest jump in the minor leagues?
DS: The biggest jump in the minor leagues in when you go from High A to Double-A — that weeds out a lot of the suspects. Guys who had good numbers at A go to Double-A, and it starts to be the real deal, because a lot of guys go from Double-A to the big leagues.

But still, the biggest jump of all is going from the minor leagues to the big leagues. At Double-A, you have your prospects, mainly your own organization guys. At Triple-A, you have a lot of six-year minor-league free agents and guys who have played in the major leagues, so there’s more finesse there.

BB: Are there specific criteria for player promotion?
DS: For pitchers, they have to throw strikes. At the lower levels, through the Florida State League, guys have good numbers, but they don’t command their fastball. If you can’t throw your fastball for a strike, you won’t pitch in the big leagues. At the lower levels, guys swing at pitches out of the zone, so the numbers are inflated. At Double-A and Triple-A, guys won’t swing at those pitches, so instead of it being 1-and-2, it’s 2-and-1.

For hitters we want guys who can control the strike zone and have good on-base percentage. There are a few exceptions like Nomar Garciaparra or Alfonso Soriano, but there aren’t many of them.

His philosophy would seem to bode well for guys like Flores and Familia, who both need to work on strike zone command. It’s amazing that the whole organization came down with Steve Blass syndrome in 2010…